hotel booking, parking and local food INFORMATION
HOTEL RESERVATIONS
MAGFest is no longer working with Maritz to handle its sleeping room reservations. MAGFest is now handling this process ‘in-house’ with MAGFest staff/volunteers. Selection of your preferred room type/location and the roommates who will be in your room will now be requested within MAGFest’s registration process and our internal lottery system will allocate sleeping rooms based on the information entered there. This process applies to all National Harbor rooms: Gaylord, Hampton Inn, Westin, etc. We have secured numerous discounted blocks at Alexandria, VA hotels that will be made available once the initial room assignments have been made. This process will be run repeatedly during the lottery period (due to declined rooms, cancellations, etc.). We will announce a date when the lottery will no longer be run in mid-October.
Process
You can enter the hotel lottery through MAGFest’s registration system after you have purchased your badge.
You will be presented with the various hotels and room types which you can rank based on your preference, and you input the check-in and check-out dates you want. A Thursday-Sunday minimum is required for all reservations through this system.
After you have made your selections, you can create a "roommate group" to allow others to be part of your room. All roommate group members must also have a MAGFest badge. You will be issued a “roommate group code” and your roommates can then go into the MAGFest registration system and use that code to confirm they want to be your roommate.
If you are in a roommate group, you cannot have your own lottery entry separate from that group.
Attendees cannot be in more than one roommate group.
The number of confirmed roommates for a room may limit the availability of room types (example: we won’t assign a room of 4 people to a king bed room that can’t fit them).
You MUST have at least one roommate to qualify for any room type with two beds.
At a pre-announced time, MAGFest will make sleeping room allocations based on all entries, using our internal process.
As soon as that process is completed, automated emails will be sent from the registration system to the roommate group leader and all registered roommates letting them know what - if any - sleeping room allocation they received. They can go into MAGFest’s registration system to click on the Passkey reservation link from the hotel with their information, and confirm the reservation by putting down a credit card to (a) confirm the reservation and pay the one-night refundable deposit, or (b) click to decline the room reservation.The attendee will then have their reservation fully confirmed, the one-night refundable deposit charged, and all roommates will be sent an email to confirm this.
If an attendee did not receive an allocation through this system, they will have access to the discounted room blocks MAGFest has negotiated in Alexandria. Their preferences will remain in the system for later lottery runs in the case of cancellations.
Any changes of roommates or dates of stay must be made in Passkey. The MAGFest registration system will have a link to the room's Passkey page.
Restrictions
MAGFest has set the following policy parameters for this process:
A single attendee who is not part of any roommate group will not receive a double-double room anywhere in National Harbor. Two - four (2-4) person room groups can select a double-double room.
A 4-person room group will not be placed in a king room. We’re just not going to give that size group a room that they will be 99.9% likely to be unhappy with.
New policy this year: rooms may not be transferred to anyone else. If you no longer need a room, simply cancel your reservation and we’ll assign it to another lottery entrant!.
Continued Policies from Prior Years
The room type you get (double-double, king, etc.) is fixed in your lottery assignment, you cannot change it.
You will not be able to request an upgrade to an atrium room or any type of suite when you check in at the Gaylord National. We use every room in the hotel, any attempt to change room types at the desk will cause major problems to other guests.
Suites
All types of suites at the Gaylord National are going to be a part of this lottery process (Executive Suites and the various larger suites).
You can enter for just a sleeping room, just a suite, or both. You'll make this selection on the second page of the lottery, on the same page you enter your contact information. From there:
If you want just a sleeping room, click "Enter Room Lottery" on the second page of the hotel lottery.
If you want to try for both a suite and a sleeping room, OR if you want only a suite, click "Enter Suite Lottery" instead.
When you select "Enter Suite Lottery," you'll first select what types of suite you would like to try for in order of preference. Afterwards, you'll be able to rate your preference for a regular sleeping room, OR opt out of a regular room. Once you complete the rest of the steps, you'll be entered for a suite and/or sleeping room.
The system will only award one suite or room based on your preferences. Requesting a regular sleeping room does not reduce your chances for getting a suite.
Timeline
This is the initial timeline for the Super MAGFest 2026 hotel lottery process:
Initial hotel lottery cutoff: Tue September 30
This is the initial deadline for attendees to register for their room and their hotel lottery preferences. We expect most - if not all - of the hotel rooms in National Harbor to be allocated in this first round.
Allocation emails sent: Fri, October 3
The Super MAGFest registration system will send emails to all attendees who entered the hotel lottery letting them know if they were assigned a room and what their assignment is. If an attendee did not receive a room in this first round lottery, they will get a link to book a room in one of the MAGFest blocks in Alexandria, VA.
Attendee acceptance/confirmation deadline: Sat, October 10
All attendees must either accept their lottery room allocation - and complete the information requested by each hotel for a reservation, including a credit card guarantee where the deposit can be charged - or they forfeit their room allocation and it goes back into the pool of rooms to be assigned via later lottery runs.
FAQ
Q: What hotels are covered under this room allocation system?
A: All hotels within National Harbor are covered within this system (Gaylord, Hampton Inn, Westin, etc.) NOTE: The Club Wyndham National Harbor is not a traditional hotel. MAGFest does not have a contract with them and we cannot assist with anyone staying there, booking through a different platform than ours.
Q: I don’t see the Residence Inn on the list of available hotels, what’s up?
A: MAGFest could not get a group block at the Residence Inn for 2026 due to the number of general reservations for MAGFest’s weekend already in the system that takes up most of their rooms. MAGFest will not be able to reduce the cost of these rooms at all.
Q: When will the refundable one-night deposit be charged to my credit card?
A: Exact timing will vary by hotel, we expect all deposits to be charged to credit cards within a week after the attendee puts down their credit card to confirm their hotel lottery allocation.
Q: How do I request a suite at the Gaylord?
A: All Gaylord suites are available to be requested within the lottery process.
Q: What happens if someone cancels their room later?
A: Any cancellations of a room assigned in this system go back into the lottery pool to be assigned to someone who does not already have a room they have confirmed. Attendees cannot transfer their room to another person outside of this system.
Q: Do I need to be a registered guest at one of the Alexandria hotels to use the MAGFest shuttle?
A: No, you just need to get to one of the announced stops and show your Super MAGFest 2026 badge when you board.
Q: What can you tell me about my odds and what scenarios have increased chances?
A: Under the former system, we saw groups who knew they would room together grab whatever they could in the lottery and then compare what reservations the members of the group got, and cancel what they wouldn’t need. This caused room churn, in that more rooms would get snapped up quickly, and the later cancellations released to an open website where these rooms would get snapped up quickly. This isn't great for anyone involved. We expect roommate groups to help prevent that churn, but we also recognized that people probably wouldn't bother taking extra steps in the system if there was no reason to do so. Thus, groups will be given a very small bonus that scales with group size. Our goal is to incentivize people to join groups (which should also allow a greater number of people to stay in National Harbor overall) but not to the point where it becomes impossible, or even significantly less likely, for a smaller group or an individual to be awarded a hotel room. (Believe it or not, many of us are introverts too :3)
We can't give you more detail on what configurations are more or less likely to secure a given room, since the odds depend on the total number of people who enter the lottery and what preferences they list (and please keep in mind that some group sizes are incompatible with some room types, which changes the odds too). Ultimately, we still have many more people than hotel rooms, and it is still a lottery at heart. We highly recommend that you fill out your preferences based on your needs rather than your perception of how to maximize your chances. This will help the system run as intended and will give you a better chance of getting what you actually want.
ATTENDEE ROOM GROUPINGS:
The form for requesting attendee room groupings at the Gaylord National [the request to have your room placed near certain other folks’ rooms] will open on this page on October 15. Folks with confirmed Gaylord reservations can make the requests then.
gaylord is now cashless:
The Gaylord National no longer accepts cash at any of its sales points on property. This includes the front desk, bars, restaurants, etc. There is a “reverse ATM” at the front of the hotel, to the left as you walk in the main entrance before the registration desk where you can convert cash into a payment card that will work across the Gaylord. Credit cards, debit cards and this payment card can be used to pay for things.
IMPORTANT: This policy does not apply to MAGFest Marketplace Vendors. Additionally, cash is still king when leaving your housekeeping staff a tip in your hotel room.
ANYTHING ELSE FOR NOW?
If you still have a question about this process, please contact us, and at the bottom of that page, you can subscribe to MAGFest’s newsletter, which will keep you up-to-date with all this information!
Shuttles
Super MAGFest 2026 will have free attendee shuttles to/from our Alexandria hotels for the first time ever! The shuttles will be running in the following blocks of time:
8am - 11am
2pm - 5pm
8pm - 11pm
2am - 5am
The shuttles will start Thursday, January 8 during the 8am - 11am time block, and the last shuttles will run on Sunday, January 11 during the 2pm - 5pm time block.
If you arrive at a designated shuttle stop during these hours, a shuttle will pick you up to take you to the other end of that route. More details will be announced as we get closer to MAGFest, but all you need to board the shuttle is your MAGFest badge!
parking information
There are three options for parking in National Harbor, where Super MAGFest 2026 takes place. Updated pricing and parking information for 2026 will be posted by the end of October, 2025.
STANDARD PARKING LOTS WITHIN NATIONAL HARBOR
National Harbor has three parking lots.
Parking at the Gaylord National
Parking in the Gaylord National lot will be priced at $19.00 day again this year. Further details as to how payment and in/out privileges will work will be provided.
Valet Parking is available in-front of the Gaylord at the main entrance for $64/day and has in/out privileges.
EV charging capabilities at the Gaylord are wall sockets near the elevators on each level. Gaylord does not have rapid charging facilities at this time.
Reserved Parking within National Harbor
We expect there to be some reserved parking within National Harbor, and will publish the details here when we have them.
DINING information
The Gaylord National has new food options, and here’s a link to some details. During MAGFest, Gaylord’s Potomac District Café & Market will be open 24 hours on Thursday-Friday-Saturday nights.
National Harbor has lots of food options, and you can access special discounts through their Show Your Badge program.
REGISTRATION INFO
Please visit the Registration Page
CHANGELOG
2025/09/10 - updated FAQ
2025/09/09 - updated to initial 2026 information